Destiny's Wrath (Destiny Series - Book 3) by Straight, Nancy (read full novel .txt) 📗

your journey. Once you have conquered courage and we are on our journey together, other obstacles will present themselves. I will tell you what they are, but you will need my help to achieve: Empathy, Trust, Virtue and Passion.’

I could feel your presence diminishing. It was as if I were watching you disappear and blend into the darkness. When there was nothing left of you sitting there, and darkness was all that remained in the chair, I heard one final whisper, ‘Lauren, don’t forget me. You must seek me: our destiny depends on it.’”

“Wow. And you said you had this dream a lot?”

“That first night really freaked me out. I woke up the next morning, and I couldn’t shake it. It was so weird that I didn’t tell Rachael, Seth, Melissa or anyone. I just kept it to myself; it was my own little secret. But then I had the same dream, night after night. I think in four years, there were maybe thirty nights that I didn’t have it.”

“So, when we met, there was no doubt that I was the one in your dream?”

“In the ambulance? Ah, no, I was sure it was you. But when you didn’t recognize me, I was worried that maybe I had a chemical imbalance or something. In fact, I even asked my mom if mental illness ran in our family.”

Max was still holding my hand. I couldn’t believe all this time together I’d never shared the dream with him. Obviously, I’d told him about it, but never shared it. As I watched him, he seemed to be mulling it all over.

“Empathy, huh?”

“Yeah, although I’m less frightened of what that might entail, now. Maybe we’ll just have to help out a homeless guy or something.”

Max, My Destiny, still holding both my hands, caressed my knuckles with his thumbs and stared deep into my eyes, “Lauren, you don’t ever have to be frightened of anything again. There’s a lot that I don’t know, but I do know there is never going to be anything like Samael that we’ll have to stand up to. I think it’s finally just you and me.”

Chapter 26

I broke his gaze to look back at the lonely cabin, “I like this place. Have you ever been inside the cabin before?”

Max shook his head, “I’ve lived here my whole life. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. Maybe when I was really young or something. It feels familiar, but I didn’t even know it was here.”

“Let’s go take a look. Maybe we can do some repairs and make it a rustic weekend getaway or something.”

He nodded his agreement. As we stepped through the threshold, it was as if we’d been transported back in time. The lonely, deserted cabin had a familiarity about it. It was covered in dust and dirt, and looked to have been vacant for decades, maybe longer.

Max’s eyes opened wide as he took the place in. He steadied himself on me, as if his legs were ready to buckle. I wasn’t sure if he had seen a ghost or what, but I could feel eerie vibrations. I asked, “Are you okay? Do you want to leave?”

Max reached for me, pulled me close in his arms, so tight that it was hard to breath. Then it was there, that electric shock. I used to feel it every time he touched me. The shock coursed through my veins; the desire for him welled up within me until I thought it would overflow.

He choked out, “You know where we are, don’t you? Do you know what this place is?”

“It’s a cabin that no one will find us in, ever. Make sure you don’t fall through any of the floor boards.”

“Lauren! This place, you don’t feel it?”

“Feel what? Dirt mites and dust spores?”

Max shook his head. We were just two steps inside the doorway, “Let me refresh your memory. There’s a bedroom off to the right. Inside was a hand-made four poster bed, cut from trees right outside in the grove. There was an armoire along the wall by the window, cut from the same area. To the right of the bed is a shallow cellar. The latch sticks out from the floor, and if you’re walking around barefoot, it’ll slice your foot.”

I got a creepy feeling, not sure how Max knew this place. I immediately took a step back as if I needed to plan an escape route. “Max, I don’t know this place. I’ve never been here before.”

“Yes, you have.” He faced me and took both my hands in his. “I built it with my own two hands, every timber, every stone. I dug the cellar out by hand. I built this place for you, Lauren.”

Before confusion could get her grip on me, a flashback overtook me. I saw Max, not present day Max, but one from a lifetime ago, maybe several lifetimes ago, with a pick axe and a shovel. He was sending buckets of dirt up to the floor as he crouched below the floor boards. I saw me, wearing an ankle length skirt and a bonnet, dumping the bucket of dirt on a cart and lowering the empty bucket back to him.

I drove the cart full of earth through the door and dumped it along the tree line away from the cabin. I watched the scene play out in my mind, and a wave of familiarity swept over me. Images, happy images of this place erupted in my mind.

The flashback released me as I walked into the bedroom, and it looked as though the place hadn’t been touched since the occupants left it. The roof had caved in, but the furniture Max had described stood, as if waiting for us to come home. I pivoted around looking at every detail, knowing Max was right. This was our home, so long ago. We were happy here. We spent our days working in the fields and our nights wrapped up